So Long
by Mondhase
Summary: When Skye vanishes from a routine mission, Ward is convinced she betrayed him and the team once again, but what if there is something more to her disappearance? Will the sting of betrayal cause him to take that risk?
1. Prologue

**A/N: This is set after "Girl in the Flower Dress", but before Skye can regain everyone's trust completely.**

**Please leave a review, as I live and breathe for them!**

**x**

**So Long – Prologue**

'So long'.

Those were the only words written on the otherwise blank laptop screen and Agent Ward couldn't stop staring at it as Agent Coulson and the rest of the team moved around him busily.

The cursor was still blinking, prompting anyone to continue typing and as far as Ward was concerned, the next word was probably going to be 'morons'.

At least that was what he felt like.

He still couldn't believe that he had been fooled – again – by the same woman, or rather the same girl, who had betrayed them all only a few weeks ago. This had been the first mission in the field for Skye without direct supervision after the whole 'Miles' incident – nothing big, just serving as surveillance support for Ward on a simple operation – and now she was gone, the SHIELD tracking bracelet lying uselessly on the table of the small hotel room they had been using as base.

Fitzsimmons were buzzing around the room, examining the bracelet, the laptop and everything else that might give them a clue as to where Skye had vanished to, but Ward knew this was pointless. There was no mystery to uncover here.

Ever since her lies had been uncovered, Skye must have only been waiting for the right opportunity to ditch them and now she had found it, making him look like a complete fool once again.

Ward was sitting on one of the chairs at the table, his arms propped up and now rested his head in his hands, sighing heavily. As if the noise had alerted him to the younger agent's continued presence, Coulson abandoned the documents he had been studying regarding the mission target and walked over to stand in front of Ward, his arms crossed.

"Tell me again what happened. From the beginning this time."

**To be continued…**


	2. Just A Routine Mission

**Chapter 1: Just A Routine Mission**

"Tell me again what happened. From the beginning this time." Coulson looked down at Agent Ward expectantly, causing him to sigh deeply once again and run a hand across his face wearily.

They had been over this already and Ward didn't think that there was much to talk about anyway. Skye had left him hanging and fled after she had found a way to get rid of the tracking bracelet and that was the end of it. Now all that was left to do was to alert headquarters and make sure they put out a search warrant for her. He was certain the young hacker had gone completely underground by now, but he wanted to make sure she was arrested the second she resurfaced again, should she ever be dumb enough to do so.

But as Ward was a good agent who obeyed orders, he didn't say any of this out loud and instead started to run Coulson through their mission, even though he already knew most of it anyway.

"It was just a routine mission. I was about to meet with that scientist Dr. O'Leary who contacted us, claiming to have information about Centipede. Skye and I came here to set up our operation base, as she was going to be my backup."

- - His thoughts wandered back to a few hours ago when he and Skye had entered the sparsely furnished hotel room, him carrying two heavy bags of equipment, while the smaller brunette was clutching a binder of files against her chest, her steps bouncing with excitement.

"I'm so glad you took me with you on this. I'll be your eyes and ears on this mission. Or, well… at least an additional set of eyes and ears." She smiled shyly at her SO and pushed a strand of her hair back behind her ear. Ward's face stayed emotionless as he began to unpack their equipment, but he looked at Skye kindly as he handed the laptop to her to set up.

"You've been doing some very good work in the past few weeks; you deserved to go back out in the field." The young woman smiled happily at these words and Ward couldn't help but be infected by her good mood. He really had missed working with Skye like this.

"So, what do you think, if everything goes well today, is Coulson going to consider taking this thing off?" She asked, raising her hand so Ward could get a good look at the bracelet around her wrist.

The agent grimaced slightly, not wanting to make any promises.

"Listen, I can't speak for him, okay? Agent Coulson might not be ready, yet, to trust you again." Skye's face fell a little as she realised that the consequences of her actions might not go away as quickly as she had hoped.

"But," Ward continued, causing the hacker to glance up at him with renewed hope, "should he ask for my advice, I'll tell him that I think you earned your old place in the team back. Unconditionally." Practically grinning from ear to ear, Skye rushed at the agent and embraced him enthusiastically, catching him completely off guard.

"Thank you! Thank you so much, Ward. You don't know how much that means to me." They stood like this for a few seconds, but even though Agent Ward couldn't deny that he was enjoying Skye's closeness, they still had a job to do, so in the end he pushed her away gently, looking down at her.

"Alright, alright. But let's postpone the celebrations until after we finished this mission, okay?"

Becoming focused again, Skye nodded and grabbed the files she had put down on the table earlier.

"You're right. Now, where were we?" She shifted through the various documents until she pulled one out, handing it over to Ward.

"Right, Dr. Thomas O'Leary, 54, biochemist who did some government work in the past, but has been working in the private sector for over a decade now. He used to work in a lab in D.C. that was destroyed in a fire five years ago and after that he was hired by the scientific research department of the Maher Foundation in Denver, Colorado. But now he contacted us and claims that this foundation has been a front for Centipede all this time and he wants to come clean about the work he's been doing there.

You'll be meeting him at a café two blocks from here, see if he checks out and bring him in. That's it, no biggie." She finished with a smile, waiting for Ward to get to the end of the report. As he handed the document back to her, the agent's eyes wandered over to the laptop set up on the table.

"And you'll be monitoring everything from here."

"Exactly. Coulson gave me access to a SHIELD satellite, so I'll be watching your every move, make sure O'Leary is alone and that everything goes according to plan." Looking down at the bracelet once more, Skye cringed slightly before continuing.

"And I guess during all of this someone somewhere will be watching _my_ every move, making sure I'm not doing anything illegal. Or fun. Or whatever. Not that I'm complaining, though," she finished sarcastically, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

Understanding her frustration, but also needing his partner to be focused, Ward looked Skye directly in the eyes and waited until she returned his gaze.

"Trust me, it's going to come off again, soon. As I said, you earned it. But now you have to stay concentrated, alright."

"Alright, fine." The young woman replied with a slight pout, before getting back to her equipment and finishing the last preparations. - -

Back in the presence, Ward clenched his fist unconsciously as he remembered his encouraging words to Skye just before the mission. '_You earned it_', how laughable and naïve that now sounded to him.

He had been ready to trust her, had even been about to put in a good word with Coulson for her – yet again – and also yet again she had thrown this trust right back into his face. Wherever Skye was now, he was sure that she was still laughing about him, the SHIELD agent she had turned into a fool with nothing more but her beautiful smile.

**To be continued…**


	3. You Are Mine

**Chapter 2: You Are Mine**

It was completely dark around her as Skye woke up, her head pounding and her side hurting. She tried to move, but quickly realised that her arms and legs had been tied to the chair she was sitting on with duct tape, preventing her from getting up. She struggled briefly against the restraints, but soon found that it was pointless.

Not even trying to move with the chair was doing anything as it had obviously been bolted to the floor, rendering her completely stuck.

She was cold and realised to her confusion that the blouse and jacket she had been wearing earlier had been removed and she was only in her pink top now, her arms and shoulders being exposed to the cold.

Skye tried to figure out where she was, but as she couldn't see a thing, that wasn't a particularly easy task. There were no sounds, either, only the smell of dust and machine oil in the air around her, indicating that she might be in some kind of factory.

But how had she gotten here? The last thing Skye remembered was being in that hotel room and in radio contact with Ward as the signal had started to break off. She had tried to fix it, but then lost it completely which shouldn't even have been possible.

But before she could try to make any more sense of her situation, the door in front of her, which she hadn't even realised was there before, suddenly opened and a bright light shone into the room, momentarily blinding her.

A second later a dark silhouette blocked part of the light again and stepped into the room directly in front of Skye. She could tell by the heavy footsteps that it was a man, but she couldn't make out his face in the shadows.

"The famous hacker Skye. Nice of you to finally join us. I will ask you some questions now and I am counting on your full cooperation. Otherwise this will become a lot more unpleasant than it has to be."

His voice sounded a lot friendlier than Skye had expected, but she still didn't doubt the very real danger she was in for even a second. But she sure as hell wasn't going to tell the person who had kidnapped her anything, so she looked at him defiantly, her head held high.

"You are making a very big mistake here right now. I have friends – very _dangerous_ friends – who are looking for me at this very moment and if you don't let me go immediately, things will soon become very unpleasant for _you_."

Her kidnapper laughed slightly at this, obviously amused by the young woman's boldness. But then he shook his head and leaned forward until his hands were next to Skye's on the armrests of the chair and he was staring straight into her face.

"No-one is looking for. As far as your friends at Shield are concerned, you bailed on them and betrayed their trust once again. Nothing unusual for you, right?" Skye swallowed hard, but a part of her still refused to believe that the man was telling the truth. So she shook her head decisively.

"No. No they would never believe that, they wouldn't...," but she broke off as she finally realised how much this actually sounded like her after all.

"Oh, they wouldn't? Are you so sure about that? There was no sign of struggle, nothing, you just got up and left, you ran like you always do when things get too rough. This time you even were so thoughtful to leave them a note." He lowered his voice a little and suddenly sounded a lot more intimidating as he continued.

"So believe me when I say that no-one is coming to save you. You are mine until I decide that I'm through with you."

He got back up and turned to leave the room again, leaving a completely horrified Skye in his wake.

"Maybe a few more hours in the dark will help you see the truth more clearly. Call, if you're willing to talk."

He was almost out of the door again when Skye spoke up once more, her voice trembling slightly.

"What did it say?" She couldn't make out the confused look on her kidnapper's face in the darkness, but judging from his silence she knew it was there.

"The note, what did it say? What did you write that my friends would believe I just abandoned them like that." She didn't need to see the malicious smile on his face as her kidnapper answered, as it clearly transcended into his voice.

"So long," he simply replied and closed the door behind him, leaving Skye alone in the darkness once more.

**To be continued...**


	4. Interferences

**A/N: I just wanted to let you guys know how much I appreciate each and every review I get from you guys, as it always makes my day when I get some sort of feedback to one of my stories. So let me know what you think of this chapter and I'll hurry up with the next one even more. Deal?**

* * *

**Chapter 3: Interferences**

"So you headed out to meet with Dr. O'Leary?" Agent Coulson prompted, eager to get on with the story.

"Yes," Ward replied, his expression stoic as he thought of the last time he had seen the team's wayward hacker.

"Skye set up communications, warning me that the television tower not far from here might possibly mess up the signal a little once the distance between us increased. But she said it wasn't a big deal and that she would be able to fix it." He gave a small laugh at that, bewildered at the faith he had still had in the young woman at that point. But he quickly continued his report as he saw the tense expression on Coulson's face, knowing that his superior was more interested in facts right now than in his hurt feelings.

"Anyway, I left for my meeting with O'Leary and with the heads-up Skye had given me, I wasn't overly concerned when there really started to be a lot of interferences in the radio signal once I got closer to my destination. Skye assured me she was working on it, that she would somehow reroute the signal through another channel or use the satellite connection to stabilise it; lots of technical explanations I didn't really care about to be honest.

When the signal broke off completely I already had eyes on the meeting place so I proceeded with the mission, trusting Skye to deal with the problems on her end alone. But the target never showed. I waited at the café for seventeen minutes before returning to the hotel, as Dr. O'Leary failed to turn up. But I guess you just can't rely on people to keep their word anymore."

"And Skye was missing when you came back?" Coulson was still standing in front of Ward with his arms crossed, listening closely to the agent's explanations. The resentment in the younger man's voice wasn't lost on him, but he preferred to remain objective and take all possible explanations for a situation into consideration before making a decision.

"Yes," Ward nodded, obviously still bitter about the memory. "Usually I would have waited longer for a meeting like this, but as the radio signal never came back up, I grew slightly concerned. But when I came back here there was no sign of a break-in, the room still looked the same as I had left it and the only things different – except from Skye missing – were this," he pushed the now-useless SHIELD bracelet a few inches across the table, "and that _thoughtful_ note she left to let us know she was quitting."

"Any ideas where she went or why now?" Coulson asked, obviously not just addressing Agent Ward with his question.

"No," the younger agent replied, shaking his head in defeat. "Sadly I didn't see this coming at all – just like I didn't see it coming the last time she betrayed us – and I have no idea where she would go or why she would even do this to us." The rest of the team looked about as clueless as Ward, until Fitz finally spoke up, trying to come up with a plan.

"Well, I don't really have an answer to either of those questions, yet, but maybe once I've analysed the data of Skye's tracking bracelet, and find out with what method it has been disabled, that could give us some clues as to what she might be up to. I'm sure Skye's getaway wasn't completely without a trace after all."

The young engineer looked confident that he would be able to find a lead on their missing team mate, but Ward suddenly objected, his voice cold.

"But she can't be our priority now. Skye obviously wanted to leave so I say we let HQ handle her and focus on Dr. O'Leary instead. If his information on Centipede is even half as valuable as he claimed, it could finally mean a breakthrough in that case. We can't let that slip through our fingers; we have to figure out why he never showed up to the meeting he himself requested."

"But surely we have to find Skye, too, right?" Simmons suddenly chimed in, looking form Ward to Coulson and back again.

"What for?" Ward asked angrily, obviously startling the coy scientist. Completely oblivious to the surprised looks he was receiving from the entire team now, the agent continued, explaining his reservations.

"Skye bailed on us. She left me hanging out in the field and for that she quite frankly doesn't deserve that we spent even another minute on her.

And let's say we do find her, what does that accomplish? She would just talk her way out of it again and before you know it you actually start believing her, because you find that despite your resolve you somehow want to. You want to believe her and to trust her and all that just because of the way she looks at you with those big brown eyes of hers and..."

Finally becoming aware of the stares the others were giving him, Ward suddenly broke off and cleared his throat in embarrassment, blushing slightly. Glancing back at Simmons who now had an understanding expression on her face, he started again, this time a lot calmer.

"What I'm trying to say is, Skye made her choice and we have to focus on the mission now. We have to try and catch up with O'Leary as long as there is still a trail to follow; we wasted enough time already."

He looked over at Coulson who seemed to ponder the situation, deep in thought, until he finally nodded.

"Agent Ward is right. We will not forget about Skye, but we can't just abandon the operation, either. We'll return to the bus and see if we can get a hold of the good doctor again." Following their leader's command, the rest of the team quickly packed up and got ready to move, but before Coulson himself could leave the room, May held him back once more, waiting for the others to clear out before speaking.

"Do you think he's right? That she really left on her own?" The look on her face was uncertain, as the usually so guarded agent hadn't yet decided what she should think of Skye's disappearance.

"That would be a definite 'no'," Coulson answered, an uneasy smile on his lips.

"Whether Skye left by her own choice or not, I am not completely sure, yet, but she definitely did not pull this off alone. I want you to check if the Rising Tide could be involved in this, starting with her known associates."

"Miles Lydon?" May asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, and everyone else from the group we can link him or Skye to."

"But he's been tagged," Agent May pointed out, prompting a small laugh from Coulson.

"And so was Skye. It seems to me those bracelets are not as unbreakable as we thought they were." Looking back at the room, the agent took a deep breath, trying to clear his thoughts.

"We have to find her, May. I know that this team means a lot to Skye and if she really chose to leave just like that... I'm sure that she must have had a very good reason to do so. And if she didn't chose to leave... then we're risking her life with every second we waste standing here talking." A determined look on his face, Agent Coulson finally left the hotel room, set on leaving no stone unturned until he had found his team's rookie, whether she wanted him to or not.

**To be continued...**


	5. Wrong!

**A/N: Well, this chapter is going to be a little... heavy, but I just didn't want to gloss over what happens to Skye and really show how high the stakes for her are. **

**As always, please read&review!**

* * *

**Chapter 4: Wrong!**

Skye was sitting at the hotel table, staring at her laptop and the satellite feed on it, showing her Agent Ward as he was on his way to the meeting with Dr. O'Leary. The image was bright and clear, but she kept clutching her ear piece as the radio signal kept getting weaker and weaker despite her best efforts to fix it.

"Ward, can you still hear me?" Skye all but shouted, desperate to keep the connection to her partner up.

"Yes, but you're breaking off a lot," he answered in a clearly annoyed tone. "What the hell is going on, Skye? You said the interferences weren't going to be much of a problem."

The young hacker rolled her eyes as she could imagine the sour look on Ward's face in this moment all too clearly, but decided not to say anything about it. He was right for once, after all.

"I know that I said that and I meant it. I don't know what's happening here. I've been trying to send the signal through another channel, I even used the satellite connection to amplify the signal strength, but nothing seems to be working. It's like something is..." There was a sudden loud frequency spike that caused Skye to pull the earpiece out in pain, but as she tried putting it back in, she had to realise that the connection was completely dead.

She sighed in defeat and was about to reach for her cell phone to contact Ward this way, when her eyes fell once more on the readings she had pulled up on the laptop screen and an inspiration suddenly hit her.

"Wait, that's not coming from the TV tower. What is that?" Her phone immediately forgotten, Skye stared at the laptop, completely focused. So focused in fact that she didn't even notice the door opening silently and two men in dark masks entering.

One of them pointed a small device at her, that didn't make any sound, but caused Skye's bracelet to open with a soft click and fall from her wrist and onto the table.

"Whoa," she exclaimed, startled by the seemingly random occurrence, as she hadn't realised what was happening, yet. But then she noticed the moving shadows on the ground and sprung up, flipping her chair over in the process.

The hacker turned around to face the intruders, her expression panicked.

"Who the hell...," but she didn't even get to finish the question, as one of the men suddenly lunged at her, a taser in his hand. She felt the pain at her neck and vaguely noticed how she collapsed sideways against the edge of the table, but after that the world around her went dark.

x

Skye was snapped out of the darkness as the door in front of her opened again, and she blinked wearily into the bright light shining in her face. At least a few hours had passed since the last time her kidnapper had paid her a visit, and after a while she had drifted off into an uneasy sleep, filled with even uneasier dreams, jumping awake every time she thought she'd heard a noise in the distance.

Her heart sped up as the now familiar silhouette of the man who kept her prisoner blocked out the light once more and stepped in front of her. But Skye was determined not to let her fear show and so she faced him defiantly.

"Listen, I don't know who you are, or who you're working for, but I can already tell you that I'm not going to answer your questions and betray SHIELD and my friends. Because no matter what they might be thinking about me right now, I'm not a traitor."

"Really?" The man asked with a small chuckle. "Because I've heard that differently. You've betrayed everything your hacker friends at the Rising Tide stand for by working for SHIELD, and then you've betrayed your friends there by working with the Rising Tide again. That's quite an accomplishment in such a short time. But I guess you're just a complicated woman, right, Skye?"

The young hacker was basically fuming at these accusations, but then she remembered her resolution not to show her kidnapper how much he was getting under her skin.

So instead of shouting insults, she answered in a tone so calm that it even surprised herself, while completely changing the subject in the process.

"You know, I'm starting to feel that I'm somewhat at a disadvantage in this conversation." Looking down at herself, she cringed a little, but continued without losing her composure. "Well, aside from the fact that I'm tied to a chair and you're the one who put me here, obviously. But you seem to know an awful lot about me while I don't even know your name.

What do I call you? I'd go with 'Mr. Kidnapper', but that doesn't really have a good ring to it, does it."

"You can call me 'Jack' if you want," the man answered after a slight moment of hesitation.

"Is that your real name?" The young woman asked, one eyebrow raised in disbelief.

"Is 'Skye' your real name?" Jack replied, not missing a beat. This time it was Skye who hesitated, but finally gave up.

"Fair enough," she answered grudgingly, accepting that she wasn't going to get her kidnapper's real identity anyway.

There was a short moment of silence after this little exchange and Jack started to circle Skye, giving her the opportunity to see him better in the light coming from right outside the door. He had short dirty-blonde hair and a rather handsome face, but that didn't diminish the fear she was feeling one bit. The fact that he didn't look intimidating didn't mean he wasn't and Skye was afraid of what else might be lying below that harmless looking surface.

There was still no source of light inside her room, or at least no-one was turning it on, and the disparity was creating an eerie atmosphere where Skye's entire focus was directed towards the door with the bright lamp just beyond it and the freedom it promised. The fact that Jack always left it open when he came to her made it feel as if she could simply get up and leave, but Skye knew that that wasn't the case. But it was probably precisely why he did it, in a subtle, yet highly effective way of taunting her.

"Now you had your questions, so we're getting back to mine," Jack suddenly announced, pulling Skye out of her thoughts and getting her to focus back on him. He was standing right in front of her again, his face once more concealed by the shadows.

"We're going to start this simple. Tell me about your team. I want to know who's on it, their names and specialisations."

"Do you honestly think I'll tell you that? As I said before, I'm not a traitor, I'm..."

There was a sudden crackling sound and a blue flash of light, cutting Skye short. The light still dancing in front of her eyes, she swallowed as her mind went back to the hotel room and the last thing she'd seen had been the taser one of her kidnappers had attacked her with.

Jack sounded extremely smug as he spoke again.

"You remember this? I reduced the voltage a little so it's not going to knock you out, but believe me, it's still going to hurt like hell. Now, shall we try this again? Tell me about your team."

As Jack started circling her again, Skye took a few deep breaths to calm herself, assessing her options in the process. She definitely didn't want to be tortured, but she also wasn't going to tell this guy anything about her team mates either.

Sighing, she finally came to a decision.

"Alright, alright. I'll tell you. First, there's Agent Simon Gale, he's our weapon's expert. He's amazing, I mean he can take a gun apart and reassemble it in like fifteen seconds and he can hit a target from miles away. He's a real inspiration to work with and..."

"Wrong," Jack interrupted her harshly and there was another blue flash in the shadows, this time followed by Skye's scream, echoing from the bare walls.

"Again, your team!" Jack's voice was menacing, but the young hacker had already understood how serious he was with his threats. She was still feeling the reality of it after all.

Panting heavily, Skye tried to compose herself again, knowing that she had to answer.

"Fine. Our team leader is Agent Morrison. He's this super hard-ass dude, giving us all the military drill. He's not always easy to get along with, but he looks out for his team and I really respect that. I don't think he likes me much, though."

Skye flinched as Jack's voice was incredibly close to her ear the next time he spoke and again, it was a blue flash and pain that followed.

"Wrong."

As the pain subsided again, Skye's body slumped forward, exhausted. But somehow, some part of her brain had obviously decided that this was the perfect moment for her to be stubborn and stupid and so she mustered up another answer without even being prompted this time.

"The name of...," she stopped to take a few deep breaths to steady herself, and then started again. "The name of our science guy is Henry Allen. He is a total legend in SHIELD and he's already worked dozens if not hundreds of field assignments in the last two decades. He's like a dad to the team which I think is really nice and I like him a lot."

"You know, I'm starting to think you're enjoying this. Because that was wrong," Jack answered slowly, standing in front of Skye again, the taser in his hand already activated. She stared at the crackling electricity with panic in her eyes, breathing heavily, but she knew there was no point in hoping for mercy. She tried to brace herself, but still screamed when the device hit her once more, until she finally passed out, her body too exhausted to take anymore.

**To be continued...**


	6. Secrets

**Chapter 5: Secrets**

They had barely been back on the plane for fifteen minutes as Coulson was standing in his office, Skye's file in his hands. He wasn't really reading it, though – as if there was much to read in the first place – but kept staring at the young hacker's picture, wondering if he could have been wrong by giving her a second chance. By trusting her to become a part of the team again.

Skye had once called him an excellent judge of character, valuing her when no-one else would, but now he wasn't so sure if that hadn't just been her way of calling him naive. He had told her he believed in giving people second chances after he himself had gotten one, but sometimes he couldn't help but remember the old saying, 'fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.'

Was this the case here? Had Skye played him for a fool? Him and the entire team?

Before he could think about that any further, though, Agent May suddenly walked into his office without even bothering to knock, a tense expression on her face.

"You already found something?" Coulson asked, knowing that look all too well.

"Yes, and it's not good. Miles Lydon is missing. His signal went dark about a week ago and SHIELD hasn't been able to track him down yet."

Obviously startled by this new information, Agent Coulson put Skye's file back on the table absentmindedly, before crossing his arms and staring at May angrily.

"Why haven't we been informed about that?" He demanded to know, obviously not amused by being kept out of the loop.

"Well, considering how the last mission involving Mr. Lydon went for us, HQ didn't want to risk anything. They sent another team, and they have been able to confirm that a small group of men, most likely with a paramilitary background has been searching for Lydon before his disappearance. The agents couldn't find out what exactly their agenda was, though."

Coulson closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath, trying to make sense of this new development. When he looked at May again, the look in his eyes was determined as he seemed to have made up his mind.

"So he was probably kidnapped," he concluded slowly, "and whatever it is this group needs a world class hacker for, they might just have decided that two are even better than one." He had picked up Skye's file once again and was waving it in May's face, but the agent was obviously not completely convinced.

"Or, they could have simply recruited him. We already know that Lydon has no problem with forgetting his morals for money and if these people have found a way to disable our tags, that would have been an even bigger motivation for him to work for them."

"Maybe, but not for Skye," Coulson objected immediately. "You heard what Ward said, she was looking forward to having the bracelet removed by _us_, not by some paramilitary group looking to hire her. And she never cared about money."

"We don't even know, yet, if the two incidents are actually related," May pointed out, but Coulson simply looked at her with raised eyebrows and the agent quickly conceded, rolling her eyes.

"Although I admit that would have been quite the coincidence, Skye's former boyfriend and her both going missing within a week. What do you want to do with this information?"

Coulson sighed as he tried to think of the best course of action.

"We're not going to tell the team, yet. I want them to remain focused on finding O'Leary and his information about Centipede. I'll contact HQ myself, see if I can dig something up."

May simply nodded and turned to leave, knowing that there was still a lot of work to be done. She was almost out of the door when Coulson called after her once more.

"And May," he waited for the agent to turn around before continuing, "we _will_ find her."

"And I don't doubt that for a second, I'm just not sure what we'll discover once we do," she replied with a hint of caution in her voice, leaving Coulson alone with his thoughts.

x

Ward was busy using the plane's main computer, while Fitzsimmons were buzzing around him, both of them talking incessantly, discussing Skye's disappearance.

"Why would she do that? Just leave, I mean. I know she lied to us before, but that was different, she didn't just disappear. And also, her boyfriend was involved that time, and he isn't anymore, right? I mean, he isn't her boyfriend anymore." He stopped only for a second, thinking about his arguments, before continuing hurriedly. "And he also isn't involved this time, so I don't understand why she just left."

"Fitz, shut up!" Ward ordered angrily, pinching the bridge of his nose to fight off the beginnings of the headache he always got when he was exposed to the engineer's ramblings for too long.

"You heard our orders; we're supposed to search for Dr. O'Leary, but if you're not going to help with that you might as well go on to the lab and play with your little robots or whatever you do down there most of the time."

Completely ignoring both the order and the insult, Fitz kept pacing and addressed Simmons once more.

"I just don't get why she wouldn't say anything. She really came around after that whole 'Miles' situation, didn't she? So for her to just leave us with nothing but that joke of a letter – it doesn't make sense. I just doesn't."

Realising that he wasn't going to be able to work in silence anytime soon, Ward turned away from the computer table and looked at Fitz understandingly.

"Listen, I know you guys consider her your friend, but you just have to accept that you can never truly know a person. Especially not one with as many secrets as Skye."

Ignoring most of what Ward had said once again, Fitz looked at him incredulously.

"What, so you're saying that you and Skye are not friends?" He asked, eyeing the agent in surprise.

"Well, not since she bailed on me in the middle of an operation, but I was also her SO which means that there always had to be some level of professional distance between us. You three just always seemed to get along more... naturally, I suppose."

Fitz smiled a little at that as if Ward had just given him a compliment, but in the end he shook his head negative.

"No, we're all her friends and I'm sure she would never leave you hanging like that, either."

"But she did," the agent objected sympathetically, shaking his head.

"There's got to be another explanation." Fitz kept insisting, but before Ward could reply anything, Agent May suddenly entered the room, looking as cold and composed as ever.

"Did you find anything, yet?"

"No, nothing," Ward replied immediately, instantly focused again. "We're running facial recognition for Dr. O'Leary through every surveillance camera we could find in the city, including traffic and ATMs, but so far we got nothing. As far as I can tell, he didn't even get near our meeting point.

But," he drew the word out slowly, obviously having a hard time admitting what he was about to say next, "– and you can believe that I hate saying this – Skye was much better at these things than I am. We could really use someone with her skill set on this."

Without the team noticing, Coulson had just entered the room, startling everyone when he suddenly spoke.

"I've just been on the phone with HQ and we've actually been discussing the very same thing. That's why they're going to send us some backup, an agent from the counter intelligence department."

Ward seemed relieved by this news as it prevented him from further having to work in a field he wasn't comfortable in, while Fitzsimmons were obviously taken completely by surprise, both of them looking a little uneasy.

May on the other hand was watching Coulson closely and that brief look he suddenly gave her pretty much confirmed her suspicion that there was something more to this reinforcement than he was letting on right now. She just needed a moment to talk to him alone to find out the truth.

**To be continued...**


	7. Have It Your Way

**Chapter 6: Have It Your Way**

When Skye woke up again, she was alone in her cell, absolute darkness surrounding her. She had completely lost her sense of time, and couldn't even tell if it was day or night, as no light from the outside made it to her room.

And while she had never been particularly afraid of the dark, she had to admit that this complete blackness around her was starting to take its toll on her. Her heart was beating loudly in her chest as she kept glancing around her, imagining that she had heard a sound.

It must have been over an hour later when there was actually a faint noise coming from one of the walls, a shuffling and the scurrying of small feet, and Skye almost jumped out of her skin before she realised that rats were probably the least of her problems right now.

Time seemed to crawl as she kept sitting in silence in her pitch-black cell, knowing that screaming for help wouldn't do her much good. If there had been anyone close enough to hear her, they would have certainly alarmed the police by now, after all the times she had screamed in pain during Jack's last visit.

Her mind kept wandering as there wasn't really anything else to do, anyway, and Skye thought about Ward and the rest of her team, her friends, and she couldn't help but wonder what they were thinking about her right now.

Had Jack's ruse really been so effective that they all believed her to be a traitor? She still remembered vividly how much it had hurt to face Coulson again after she had deceived the team to warn Miles, but it hadn't been nearly as bad as the silent treatment she had received from Ward for weeks afterwards.

But she had been able to fix it, more or less at least. She had worked hard to make it up to everyone and if their last exchange before the mission was anything to go by, Ward had finally forgiven her for her betrayal.

But now they were right back at the start, probably even worse, and Skye realised with horror that should she die in this cell and the team never found her, Ward's last memory of her would always be how she had betrayed him in the worst possible way, by abandoning him in the middle of an operation and all she could do about that was hope and pray that this wasn't going to be the end for her.

Ripping her out of her thoughts, there was a noise coming from outside, and Skye realised after a second that it were footsteps quickly getting closer. A moment later the door opened and the bright light from the hallway blinded her once more until her eyes slowly adjusted to it.

As Jack entered the room, Skye blinked at him, her vision returning and she noticed that he had a bottle of water in his hand. And she found that despite her best efforts not to she couldn't stop staring at it. She was so thirsty she kept feeling like she was about to pass out again, even though she was doing nothing but sitting around.

After he had set the bottle down in the corner, Jack faced her again, his arms crossed in front of him.

"Are you feeling a little more like talking today?" He asked, but clearly not very confident to get any useful information this time.

"Depends on the topic, I guess," Skye answered quickly, sounding almost like her usual cheerful self. "You wanna talk about clothes, or hacking maybe? Politics' a bit boring if you ask me and I'm sorry, but I don't do sports, but other than that I'm sure we'll find something to talk about." She was doing her best to not let her real emotions shine through, but Jack wasn't falling for the act.

"You're a funny girl, aren't you? Putting up this brave front, but I know deep inside you're already shaking in fear."

But Skye was determined to defy her kidnapper for as long as possible, and so she continued in a brisk tone, her voice unwavering.

"The only reason why I might be shaking is 'cause it's fricking cold in here. Would it kill you to turn up the heat for once?"

But Jack remained unfazed and kept looking down at her calmly.

"So you're not going to tell me about your team, I take it."

"No, I'm not." Skye replied determinedly

"Alright," Jack answered briefly, before pulling out the taser once more and attacking Skye with it without wasting another second.

Taken by surprise by the attack, the young woman hadn't been prepared for the pain and screamed loudly when it hit her. But it didn't really get any better each and every time Jack repeated his question and she either refused to answer or just made something up, causing him to taser her again.

But after a while he stopped and went over to pick up the water bottle he had brought with him, unscrewed it and took a large sip, all of it very slowly so he was sure that Skye could see every second of it. And it worked, because even though she knew that he was just trying to tempt her into giving up her team, she couldn't keep her eyes off the water either.

"I tell you what," Jack finally announced, putting the bottle back to the ground. "You give me a name and I'll give you some of the water. Easy as that."

But Skye wasn't bribed so quickly and she shook her head decisively, still refusing to give up her friends. Jack sighed and looked at her for a long moment quietly, but when Skye already thought that he might stop the interrogation for now, he suddenly hit her across the face violently, making her vision spin for a moment.

"You think you can keep resisting? You can try, but I promise you that I will not leave this room until you tell me everything I want to know. You can spare yourself a lot of pain by cooperating."

But Skye kept her eyes firmly on the ground, not saying a word.

"Fine, have it your way, then," Jack announced as he took out the taser once more and activated it, advancing on his prisoner. She tried to close her eyes against the pain, but it overwhelmed her anyway, causing her to scream in agony.

Skye couldn't tell how long this went on, but when Jack stopped for a moment, her mind was completely blank and her body trembling. Even her tears had stopped falling as she was too exhausted to even cry anymore.

Jack was now circling her once more, giving her the time to catch her breath. But as he approached her again after a few seconds, the taser still in his hand and ready to continue where he had left of, all of a sudden something in Skye gave in and she couldn't take it anymore. She had tried to will the pain away, to distract herself from it by clinging on to better memories, but nothing had helped. Every fibre of her body was screaming in pain and she just wanted it to stop, needed it to stop, no matter what she had to do for that.

"Stop," she begged, sobbing silently, before Jack could hurt her again. "Please."

"You know what I want to hear; come on, give me something, Skye!" He sounded as if he was cheering her on, his good mood only making her defeat feel so much worse. But there was no turning back now and so Skye finally answered.

"Ward," she uttered silently in between her sobs, her voice barely audible.

"What was that?" Jack asked with a triumphant grin on his face. "Say it again."

„Agent Grand Ward", Skye repeated, more clearly this time, even though her voice still sounded broken and was constricted with tears. But even though she knew that her defences had crumbled and she wasn't able to hold out against the torture anymore, a small part of her still hadn't given up hope. She just had to believe that help was coming and so she looked up at Jack, a small spark of defiance still shining in her eyes.

"He's the one who will kick your ass… no," she stopped and corrected herself, her expression becoming even fiercer, "he's the one who will kill you for this."

Still grinning, Jack leaned down to her and grabbed Skye's chin in one hand, forcing her to keep looking at him.

"Keep believing he's coming to save you if you want. Hell, I don't care if you think Santa and his fucking reindeers are coming for you as long as you give me the information I want.

But, that was a very good first step and I want you to know that I'm a man who always keeps his word."

He let her go to unscrew the water bottle and then held it up to her mouth to drink, which Skye did eagerly. She hated herself for giving in, but at the same time she was also just glad for the pain to be over. Each drink of water she took was a wave of relief washing through her and it felt way too soon when Jack suddenly pulled the bottle away again.

"There's a lot more where this came from, but that was all you've earned yourself so far. Now, the rest of your team." He was standing back in front of her again, his arms crossed and his demeanour as threatening as ever.

Swallowing hard, Skye knew that she had no choice, if she didn't want the torture to continue. She closed her eyes for a second as she didn't want to face what she was about to do. That she was about to become the traitor she had always claimed she wasn't.

"Coulson. Agent Phil Coulson, he's our team leader."

Grinning in triumph, Jack glanced over at the small camera hidden in one of the corners behind Skye as he listened to the hacker giving him everything he had wanted to hear. The others would be pleased.

**To be continued...**


	8. Haze

**A/N: Well, this took a little longer than I had planned, sorry about that. But there was this plot bunny that kept biting me, so I had to do a one-shot about that one **_**horrible**_** scene at the end of 'The Well' first, so I could get to terms with it. **

**But anyway, here we go...**

**Chapter 7: Haze**

It had been way past midnight when Agent Ward had finally returned to his bunk to get at least a few hours of sleep after he had spent the entire evening and half the night searching for a lead on the missing scientist. But it had all been to no avail, as he hadn't been able to find even the smallest trace of him.

But it had kept him busy and his thoughts occupied as he now realised, because now that he was lying in his bed and had nothing else to do, he couldn't stop his mind from wandering back to Skye and her disappearance.

_So long_. Just thinking about that laughably short note she had left him with made his temper rise so Ward tried to get his mind off it and calm down again. He didn't even know who he was angrier with, Skye, for leaving, or himself, for believing all of her assertions that she wanted to be a part of the group again.

He started thinking back to Fitz's insistence that something about Skye's disappearance wasn't right, and he couldn't help but wonder why it was so hard for him and Simmons to accept the truth. To accept that sometimes even the ones you trusted the most could betrayed you.

He had once accused Skye of being naive and not understanding how the world out there really worked, but of course deep down he knew that the same was just as true, if not even more so, for the two scientists. He just forgot sometimes that despite their doctor titles they were still very young and inexperienced when it came to field work.

They hadn't realised, yet, that trusting someone in the field meant putting your life in their hands. So in this line of work there was no middle ground. Either you could trust someone completely, or you couldn't. And Skye had proven that she obviously couldn't be trusted.

As Agent Ward tried to get some sleep, he crossed his arms behind his head to relax, and after a while he felt himself drifting off slowly. That is until a noise from outside of his bunk suddenly startled him.

He thought he heard a voice and laughter coming from the corridor, so Ward got up reluctantly to investigate. He hit the button to open the door and it slid open silently, revealing the dimly lit interior of the plane. He stepped outside and looked around, but at first everything seemed to be quiet. But as he looked towards the lounge area, he suddenly spotted a figure standing there, looking straight at him. A very familiar figure.

"Skye!" He shouted as he recognised the woman dressed in an alarmingly pink dress, but she turned around and quickly disappear around the corner at the end of the corridor in front of him. He heard a soft giggling and recognised the voice immediately, so he followed, shouting Skye's name again, but as he reached the spot where she had vanished from his sight, she was gone again.

He turned around and looked in all directions frantically, until he finally spotted a flash of pink moving in the direction of the cargo bay. He went after her like before, only to have her stay one step ahead of him at every turn, the hallways and rooms of the plane becoming a maze as he chased after the young woman.

"Skye, stop running, damn it," he yelled in frustration, making a 360° spin as he tried to figure out where she had vanished to now.

"Skye!" But the only response he got was the giggling from before and Ward seethed with anger at the thought of the brunette laughing at him. He was just about to shout for her again as he heard a door be slammed shut loudly and he could instantly tell by the direction of the noise that it had come from Coulson's office.

A confident smile appeared on the agent's face as he made his way up the circular staircase, as he knew that Skye would be trapped had she gone into their CO's office.

He opened the door to the office slowly and grinned victoriously as the woman in the pink dress was really inside, standing in front of the desk, her back turned to him. Even from behind he recognised the outfit as the one Skye had been wearing on their mission in Malta when she had infiltrated Ian Quinn's compound, but he stopped short for a moment as noticed that both the dress and the girl wearing it were completely drenched, like she had been at the end of that operation.

"There's no use in running anymore, Skye, I got you." She was still dripping with water as she finally turned around and Ward's breath caught in his throat the second he got a better look at her.

There was a bloody gunshot wound in Skye's chest, her skin as pale as death and the look in her eyes vacant as she barely seemed to recognise the agent in front of her.

"Grant?" She whispered, but before he could reply anything, the young woman suddenly collapsed, her severe injury catching up with her. Ward lunched forward without thinking and caught her just in time to lower her to the ground gently.

"Skye! Skye, can you hear me?" The agent was scared out of his mind seeing her like this and he grabbed her hand, trying to reassure the both of them, as he kept staring at her, waiting for any kind of reaction.

"Skye, please, say something," he urged her, slightly calmer this time. "Tell me what happened. Where were you, why didn't you tell me where you went? How am I supposed to protect you if I don't even know where you are?" His voice became increasingly panicked as there was still no reaction from the young woman, so Ward tried to feel for her pulse, but he couldn't find anything.

"No! No, no, no, no, no! Skye!" He cried out her name in pain as the realisation that the young woman was gone struck him and the cry carried over from the dream into reality, finally ripping the agent out of his restless sleep.

Agent Ward was still lying in his bed, his skin now drenched in sweat and the sheet tangled around him. He took a steadying breath, sat up, groaning, and glanced at the clock telling him that it was only 4:30 in the morning.

He briefly considered going back to sleep, as he could definitely use some more rest, but as he was still feeling pretty shaken after the nightmare he had just had, he quickly decided against it and instead got up to get a head start on the day.

Making his was out of his bunk, Ward immediately went to get a shower to wake himself up properly and to chase away the lingering tension still in his body after that dream. He was glad that he didn't run into anybody of the others on the way, though that wasn't very surprising at this early hour.

As he entered the bathroom he turned on the water and got undressed, all the while feeling as if his body was running on fumes. He was used to getting along with little sleep, but for some reason this time was different. Maybe the dream had had him more rattled than he liked to admit, but whatever it was, Ward instantly felt better as he stepped into the shower, leaning with his hands against the wall, just letting the water run over his exhausted body.

And while he stood there under the streaming water, the heat turned up just a little bit higher than what was really comfortable, he finally felt his muscles relax again and his head clear up.

His thoughts went back to the dream once more, and he couldn't help wondering if there might actually be something to it. Was Skye really in danger or was this just Fitzsimmons' nagging getting to him? He sighed deeply, unable to come up with any satisfying answer, so he closed his eyes instead and tried to push any though about the brunette hacker to the back of his mind.

Skye wasn't his priority right now, she couldn't be. He had a mission that came first and to keep himself from being distracted any further, he decided to get back to that as quickly as possible. So he turned off the shower and hurried to return to work again.

Ward had been in the bathroom a lot longer that it would usually take him to get ready in the morning and so it was already shortly after 5 am when he finally made his way to the command centre to work at the computer there, but he stopped short as he noticed to his surprise that all the monitors inside were working, the area brightly illuminated in contrast to the otherwise dark plane.

He quickly realised that there was someone in there, and for a second his mind played a trick on him and he thought the woman working on the computer was Skye, but even though his heart started beating faster, he knew that it wasn't true.

In fact, he had never seen the woman, who was so focused on whatever she was working on at the computer table that she didn't even notice him as he walked closer, before, so he took a moment studying her appearance to get a first read on her.

Judging by her professional looking grey pants suit, she was definitely a SHIELD agent, probably the backup Coulson had mentioned yesterday, but her complete lack of situational awareness told Ward immediately that she wasn't used to going in the field. Coulson had said that HQ would send someone from counter intelligence, but somehow he had been hoping for a more experienced and proficient agent, and not another computer whiz he would have to babysit in a fire fight.

"Are you just going to stand there Agent Ward or do you actually plan on introducing yourself?" Completely caught off guard by the question, Ward struggled to come up with an answer for a second, but in the end, the new arrival beat him to it as she turned to face him.

She was wearing a dark blue blouse, the material slightly crinkled as if she had been wearing it a while, and her dark blonde hair had been tied up into a knot, although a few strands had gotten loose by now. The jacket of her suit was lying over the table in the corner and Ward noticed that it was still in perfect condition as if the agent had been taken it off whenever she could.

She was now standing in front of him, her hand extended in greeting as she smiled at him kindly, though obviously a little tired.

"I'm Agent Rebecca Haze. Agent Coulson said you were one computer expert short at the moment and could use some help on the case you're working. So HQ assigned me to your team temporarily. Nice meeting you," she finished with an even brighter smile, causing Ward to finally return the greeting and shake her hand firmly.

"Agent Grant Ward, but I figure you already know that," he replied, obviously a little wary.

"Yes, I hope you don't blame me for reading up on the team I was going to work with, first. I was just about to leave work yesterday evening when I suddenly got orders to get on a plane to join you here, so I thought a little reading material for the way couldn't hurt. In fact, I just arrived a few minutes ago, but I figured I might as well get to work immediately. Agent Coulson said I should make myself at home."

As if on cue, the team's CO suddenly walked into the command centre, two cups of coffee in his hands, but paused as he noticed Ward.

"Ah, I see you two have met, already." And looking down at the steaming cups, he added, "I knew I should have made more."

**To be continued...**


	9. That Part of You That's Trying to Resist

**A/N: I am so sorry that it took me this long to post this chapter, but real life (that bitch!) just kept interfering with any writing attempts I made. It also turned out pretty long, practically the last two chapters put together, but there just wasn't a good point to break off. **

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy chapter. As always, please leave a review! **

**Chapter 8: That Part of You That's Trying to Resist**

There was a single tear sliding down Skye's cheek as she finished telling Jack everything she knew about her team mates, from their specialisations and abilities to their personalities and the relationships that had formed between them. She hated herself for doing this, was appalled at how easily the words came from her mouth that betrayed the people who had become like family to her during these past months of working with them.

Jack was leaning back against the wall next to the exit almost casually while the door next to him was still open, taunting Skye with its fake promise of freedom. He had been asking her countless questions about her team for the past hour, but the more time had passed, the more the whole exchange had shifted from an interrogation to a conversation, as Skye's resistance had crumbled.

She was going to tell him anyway, to avoid further torture, so what was the point in prolonging the inevitable? And, as she kept telling herself, it wasn't as if this was the most sensitive information, anyway. Many people had been in contact with her team so far, and knew their names and skills and only a few of those had had any form of high level clearance. Skye was counting on her conviction that even this detailed information on her friends in their enemies' hands wasn't putting them in any more danger than they could handle.

A few moments after Skye fell silent, Jack pushed himself off the wall again and approached her slowly, looking down at the bound young woman approvingly. She avoided his gaze by keeping her eyes locked on the ground, but his voice told Skye immediately how much Jack was satisfied by her obedient behaviour. The thought alone made her feel sick again.

"Now that wasn't so hard, was it? As I told you from the beginning, as long as you cooperate, there's no reason for me to mistreat you or resort to more drastic measures." He crouched down in front of Skye, so they were on eye level and she had to look at him.

"So just keep answering my questions truthfully and I won't have to hurt you again. Though I'll admit, some of those lies you came up with were at least entertaining," he admitted with a crooked grin.

Skye looked into Jack's eyes in silence for a moment, his words echoing in her mind, as a realisation suddenly hit her. Something that should have been obvious to her for a long time, but the pain from the torture and her desperation over her situation had probably been too much for her to think straight and make the connection. But now it had finally clicked and her entire struggle to defy Jack and withstand the torture suddenly seemed laughable and pointless to her.

"You knew, didn't you?" Her kidnapper's expression remained unreadable, so Skye continued, even though she was sure he had understood her perfectly.

"You knew about my team, who's on it, their specialisations, everything. That's how you could always tell when I was lying. Because you already had all the information anyway." Jack had stood up again by now and was facing Skye with his arms crossed in front of his chest, as he looked down at her, obviously amused.

"You played me," the young woman all but shouted, clearly feeling mocked by the expression on Jack's face. "You tortured me for hours, and for what? For something you already knew? What would you do that for?"

"Well, I told you those were the easy questions, didn't I? You and I, we first had to build up a relationship where I could trust that you told me the truth. You really think I would start with questions I didn't already have the answers to?"

Jack's reply was so matter-of-factly that Skye felt even stupider that it had taken her this long to figure out the purpose of his questions. But, as she quickly realised, this development let to another question.

"How? How did you know all this? Who told you?" She demanded to know, but Jack was clearly not liking the sudden change in his prisoner's attitude. Without warning, he suddenly hit Skye across the face angrily, causing her lip to crack and blood to spill over her chin.

"You think _you're_ asking the questions now?" He asked threateningly, but Skye was too furious to be intimidated. She kept staring daggers at Jack as she replied angrily.

"You think I'll be _answering_ any questions now? If you already have a source telling you about SHIELD, why am I even here? Just let me go already. Let me go!" She shouted the last part furiously and even though it wasn't achieving anything, she vigorously tried to pull her arms free from the duct tape binding her.

Jack sighed as he watched Skye struggle futilely against her restraints, then reached into a pocket of his jacket and pulled out a small case with a syringe in it. After making sure there was no air left in it, he approached Skye carefully and grabbed her arm tightly to hold it still, even though the young woman was thrashing around violently.

"You brought this on yourself, so quit struggling," he hissed as he jabbed the needle into her arm and after that it only took a few moments for her to calm down, her movements becoming slower, her thought fuzzier.

"What did you... Why are you doing this?" Skye asked wearily, her speech beginning to slur, but Jack didn't answer. As Skye's eyelids began to drop, the last thing she saw was him pulling out a knife from a sheath on his belt, then the word around her vanished in darkness.

x x x

As Skye regained consciousness, she felt so tired and exhausted that is took several moments for her to even open her eyes. She wearily raised a hand to her face to rub the sleep from her eyes, but after a few seconds she stopped the movement, suddenly realising to her surprise that she was even able to do so.

Her eyes finally flew open and the first thing Skye noticed was that she wasn't tied to a chair anymore, but was instead lying on a simple mattress on the floor, her hands and feet untied, free to move around. And it wasn't dark around her as before either. A single light bulb was hanging from the ceiling, providing a stark, but reassuring light that filled the small room she was currently held in.

The position of the door and the width of the room told Skye immediately that this wasn't the same cell as before and for some reason that fact alone sent a wave of relief rushing through her. All the pain she had had to endure in that place had caused her to subconsciously associate it with her terror and surely the fact that Jack had taken her out of there and brought her here could only mean that things would get better. Right?

Skye slowly rose into a sitting position, when the light suddenly flickered a little, sending a surge of panic through her. But as it instantly came back on, she relaxed again and then finally started to look around her new prison more thoroughly, causing her to notice something on the ground next to the door.

A plastic cup with a clear liquid – water, as Skye determined by testing it carefully – and a candy bar had been left for her, and given the fact that she hadn't eaten anything in forever and had only had the little water Jack had given her earlier, she didn't hesitate long and started digging into her meagre meal. She had already finished most of the water and half the candy bar when she started to wonder how long it might be until she would receive anything else.

Getting her food and water on a regular basis was apparently not one of Jack's concerns, but then again, he obviously wasn't going to let her starve, either. But ultimate it was the rumbling of her stomach that made the decision for her and Skye finished the rest of the candy and the water, feeling at least a little relieved.

Now that she had eaten, Skye stood up clumsily, her legs still a little shaky from being forced to sit for so long. The first thing she did was try the door, remembering that the one in her old room had actually been unlocked, given the fact that she had been unable to escape anyway.

It wasn't really a surprise when she found that this one was locked, but still Skye sighed a little in disappointment as her hand tried to turn the handle without success. The door made an extremely sturdy impression and as it wasn't like she had any tools at her disposal, there wasn't really anything she could do to get through it. The same was true for the rest of the room as well, which was windowless and consisted only of bare brick walls, just like her previous prison had.

As there wasn't really anything else she could do, Skye went back over to the mattress, starting to wonder what the reason for this sudden relocation could have been. Was Jack trying to encourage her to give him more information about SHIELD by treating her better, now that she had started to cooperate?

But even though that idea did seem to make a certain sense, she would have thought that her little episode right before he had drugged her would have undone any progress she might have made in Jack's book.

She still couldn't believe that he had played her like that. That he had tortured her endlessly, while only asking for information he already had.

But then Skye's mind went back to the question she had asked him earlier and her brow furrowed in confusion. How exactly was it that Jack already had this information, anyway? Did someone involved in one of their cases sell them out or was it even another SHIELD agent that had given up her team. But the young hacker quickly shook her head at the last thought. If Jack already had an agent of SHIELD giving him information, either because they had been tortured as well or voluntarily betrayed the organisation, what would he even be needing her for?

She realised that she didn't have enough pieces of the puzzle, yet, for all of this to make any sense, but one thing was for certain. Someone had been telling Jack a lot of details about her team and there was no telling what else he already knew. So once the interrogation resumed – and it was only a matter of time before it did, better accommodation or not – she had no way of knowing when she could get away with a clever lie or when Jack would start torturing her again to get the truth out of her.

But figuring there was no point in getting worked up in advance about whatever else Jack would do to her, Skye decided to make the best of her current situation and get as much rest as possible. She laid back down on the mattress, staring up at the ceiling above, and soon found that her body actually relaxed a little, despite the still grim circumstances. After more than a day of being tied to a chair, just being able to lie down again was an immense relief.

Not that she could actually tell how long it had been since Jack had kidnapped her. With all the times she had been drugged, passed out or simply drifted off to sleep, it was impossible to tell how much time had passed.

Skye briefly wondered if the others still believed that she had abandoned them, if Ward was still as hurt and angry as she knew he would be or if maybe they had figured out that something was wrong, after all.

She didn't allow herself to dwell on that thought for long though, as it simply hurt too much to just think about her team. Her friends. Most likely they weren't searching for her at all, and even if they were, how would they possibly find her?

No, as far as Skye was concerned, she was on her own now. She just needed to wait for the right opportunity to escape by herself. And to do that, she needed to live long enough and not give Jack any reason to kill her.

About half an hour passed by in silence while Skye pondered her next move. The light bulb above her flickered a few more times, each time startling her and sending a new wave of dread through her, but so far it kept working. Then, out of nowhere, the sound of a key turning in the door caused Skye to rise from the mattress, anticipation, but also fear clearly evident in her eyes as she backed up against the far wall and stared at the door.

Jack entered slowly and Skye's eyes immediately went to the gun he was holding in his hand, panic that he might have decided to kill her now, after all, spreading through her.

"Hello, Skye," Jack greeted her friendly, as if oblivious to her terrified state. "Do you like your new room?" He gestured around the confined space with the gun, sending another wave of terror through the young woman. As she didn't answer him right away, Jack cocked his head to the side, his eyes narrowing ever so slightly.

"I asked you a question," he said as he trained the gun directly at Skye's face. "Do you like it?"

"Yes," she answered quickly, nodding her head frantically. "Yes, it's lovely." The panic in her voice was unmistakable, but Jack acted as if he didn't hear it at all and actually smiled as he replied.

"Good. I thought you might like to get out of that chair. And I see you've already eaten." He glanced down at the empty plastic cup and candy bar wrapper at his feet.

"Yes," Skye replied immediately this time, "but it wasn't much." Jack's expression darkened and Skye instantly knew that she had said something wrong.

"No, it wasn't, was it?" His voice was menacing as he took a step towards Skye, the muzzle of his gun still aiming between her eyes. "But the thing is, Skye, you haven't really earned yourself anything else, or have you?"

Tears rushed into the young woman's eyes and her breathing became hectic as she was suddenly sure she was going to die now. Her screaming at Jack earlier had simply been too much and now she was about to pay the price for her thoughtless behaviour.

"I'm sorry," she uttered weakly, not knowing what else to say. "I... I didn't mean to act like that, I was just... I was stupid and I'm sorry. I'm really sorry." She was openly crying now, tears streaming from her eyes as Jack kept watching her silently.

But after a seemingly endless moment, he suddenly flipped the safely on the gun back on and tucked it behind his back under his belt, completely startling Skye.

"Alright. Let's get back to business then, shall we?" He asked, but the young hacker was obviously not following his words at all.

"What?" She uttered in confusion, the fear for her life she had felt just moments ago only slowly releasing its grip on her.

"Well, we had been making quite the progress earlier, before you got yourself a little worked up, hadn't we? You were just about to tell me everything about SHIELD you know. So let's continue where we left off."

Still unable to come to terms with the sudden mood change, Skye kept starring at Jack, completely dumbfounded.

"But... but I don't understand. You were just about to shoot me, weren't you? And now everything's fine again, just like that?" Jack chuckled slightly at her confusion, which only irritated Skye further.

"You think I was going to shoot you for screaming at me? Don't worry, I wasn't. I just needed you to remember who lays out the rules here, that's all."

And that was when it hit Skye. Jack had just been playing with her again, just like before. First him releasing her from the chair, even giving her a place to lie down and something to eat, then threatening her so much that she actually started fearing for her life. It was a perfect carrot–and–stick approach if she had ever seen one.

Exhausted by the rollercoaster of emotions she had been going through in the past few minutes, Skye leaned back against the wall, staring at Jack uncertainly. She just couldn't get over how he seemed to be one step ahead of her at all times. And it made her feel even more vulnerable than her current situation was doing anyway.

She flinched as he suddenly walked over to her and grabbed her arm, but now that he had put away the gun, at least the fear of imminent death had vanished. Jack pulled her further into the centre of the room, his eyes fixed on Skye's, who was doing her best to avoid his gaze. He clasped his free hand around her chin to make her hold still, then slowly began to speak, his voice dropping to a whisper.

"There's still that part of you that's trying to resist me, hoping for help or thinking you might get out of here on your own. But you won't, so the sooner you let go of that part, the easier all of this will be."

Skye's heart was beating loudly in her chest, fear, anger and desperation causing a surge of adrenaline to pump through her system. Once again it was as if Jack could see right through her and read her mind before she herself even knew what she was thinking. And she knew that whoever it was who wanted all these information from her, it wasn't a coincidence that they had sent Jack to get them. He must have already had a lot of experience with interrogating people, manipulating them to get what he wanted and Skye knew that it was only a matter of time until she would give him everything she knew, as well.

But just as Jack let go of her chin again, and his grip on her arm slightly loosened, the light bulb above them flickered again and this time went out completely.

Maybe it was all the time she had spent in complete darkness over the past days, or just her survival instinct kicking in, but for whatever reason, it was Skye who recovered first from the sudden lack of light. Relying blindly on the months of training with Ward, she twisted herself out of Jack's grasp completely, reached behind his back and pulled out the gun from behind his belt.

Backing away from him, she released the safety of the weapon with trembling fingers, just as the lights flickered back on, revealing a completely changed scene.

Skye was standing with her back against the far wall of the room once more, the gun in her hands pointing at Jack who was standing directly between her and the exit. His eyes locked on his own weapon being trainer on him for a second, before he looked directly at the young woman, his expression extremely cocky for someone in his position. He lifted his hands a little as if surrendering, but his behaviour still suggested that he was actually the one in control.

"So, have you ever even aimed a gun at somebody?" He asked, obviously not worried at all. Skye just shrugged, trying not to show how terrified she was at the moment.

"I'm training to be a SHIELD agent. Sure I have." But as usual, Jack could see right through the brave front she was putting on, and continued confidently.

"Well, then I assume you already shot someone, too, right? Watched them die, knowing it was you who ended their life?" He could see the growing uneasiness on Skye's face, the way her mouth opened and closed a few times as if she was trying to say something, but couldn't find the right words.

"No?" He asked almost kindly, his voice soft and understanding. "Didn't think so. Now then, let's stop wasting time with this charade and get back to our conversation. I still have _so_ many questions." He approached Skye slowly, his hand outstretched to take the gun from her, but she suddenly jerked backwards in fear and without even realising what she was doing, her fingers clenched tightly and she pulled the trigger.

To be continued...


End file.
